"A descendant of the person "killed by lightning"
{some persons survive lightning-strikes -- http://www.ufoarea.com/aas_lightning.html
} acquired a shamanic lineage and could become a shaman. Such shamans
who originated from ancestors killed by lightning were called nerjer-utkhatai".

44

42

"In the past, a mandatory part of the shamanic costume had been
a robe called orgoi, which later was used only to cover the body
of a deceased shaman. ... It was manufactured from ... material of white
color for "white" shamans and of blue color for "black"
shamans. What made the orgoi different from everyday wear were
their decorations : metallic pendants in the form of disks, human beings,
animals or birds.

Shamans also wore caps made of lynx fur {cf. Padma-sambhava as lynx}
with tassels at the top. An experienced shaman, who had been through five
initiations, received an iron cap in the form of a crown that was decorated
by two iron antlers."

43-4

"On the eve of a first initiation, shamans usually received two
"horse staves." ... A staff was decorated with a horse head
carved at the top and a horse hoof carved on its bottom. ... the staff
symbolized a horse, which a shaman used to journey ... The staves were
made from fresh birch wood. While cutting wood for staves, the Buryat
tried not to damage the trunk of the birch tree. ...

45

Shamans kept all their shamanic items in special wooden boxes called
shire".

47

"Before the first initiation, ... a purification by water. An experience
shaman ("father shaman") ... and his nine assistants ("sons
of the shaman") brought and consecrated spring water by throwing
... silver birch bark into it. They also cut small pieces of hooves, horns
and fur from the ears of a goat ... and threw them into the same water.
... One of the assistants of the "father-shaman" soaked piles
of birch-sprouts [sprouting as shoots from the birch-tree’s roots] in
the consecrated water and flogged the naked back of the would-be shaman
with these wet sprouts."

47

53

funeral for dead shaman : "the body was burned in a special shamanic
grove on a pyre made from freshly-cut pine logs. After the body was burned,
people killed and burned the horse that had carried [the cadaver of] the
shaman and hung the drum of the deceased and other sacred items on nearby
trees. Horse staves, the shamanic cap, and the khur [bent rectangular
musical instrument] were put into a small wooden box, which was placed
high up in one of these trees. Then relatives collected the bones remaining
from the burned body and stored them in a specially carved hole in the
trunk of a pine tree. The hole was covered with a wooden lid and nailed
tightly." {did this repraesent marriage to a tree-nymph?}

"an internal force called to:s ... signals to a chosen individual
to accept the shamanic vocation."

52

8

"... small pieces of iron produced by a lightning strike in the
ground ...

8b

These ... are usually called tenerenin kylyzhi, which means the
"sky sword" ... The "sky sword" is transferred ...
to a person whose is "called" to become a shaman. Shamans are
convinced that the "sky sword" allows them to light their paths
and protects them from attacks of hostile spirits during their journeys
to the country of Erlik."

54

15b

"The typical shamanic melody is built on the basis of an "ancient
Chinese scale," which has only five basic tones and does not contain
any half-notes."

While all ... shamanesses are allowed to visit and converse with Erlik,
shamaness are not permitted to perform se’ances addresses to U:lgen. {so
as to protect shamanesses from being seduced by U:lgen or by his sons?}

U:lgen lives in a golden palace with golden gates." {as Mammo^n
?)

11

"the se`ances addressed to U:lgen are not so frequent as the ones
addressed to Erlik {because U:lgen is too dangerous?} ... the se`ances
addressed to U:lgen are usually more solemn" {i.e., more grim?}

14-5

"mountain spirits ... are ... the beings who are able to grant people
material possessions, and, as such ... earthly".

58

29

"the chief spirits crucial for all shamans are the spirits of their
ancestors-shamans,

59

who form their "armor"" {cf. "armor" in Ephesians}.

18

"U:lgen began creating human beings by putting a blue flower in
a golden cup. Erlik, who was actually U:lgen’s brother {is this derived
from Bogomil theology?}, stole part of the flower and began creating his
own people as well {this is a well-known Daoist myth : in it the thief
is benevolent}. U:lgen became angry {disclosing his vicious nature?} ...
saying, "My white people will go to the sunrise, and the black people
you made will go to the West." {This Teleut assignment to directions
is opposite from the Buryat assignment, on p. 80 of S^S} After
this, "black people" covered the "circle" (drum) with
a skin and started to shamanize". {so, are all shamans "black
people’?}

38

"Shamans use their costumes {in order to shew honorific respect}
when they perform se’ances addressed to earthly spirits, Erlik and his
sons, clan spirits and other ko:rmo:s.

Se’ances addressed to U:lgen and his sons are conducted without any costumes
{in order to shew disrespect & contempt?}; shamans wear regular robes,
to the backs of which they attach {in order to flaunt their contempt toward
U:lgen?} three white ribbons reaching to the ground" {to convey to
U:lgen the messages "Get thee behind me, S`at.an!"
and "sink thee into the ground!", i.e., "Go to Hell, O!
U:lgen"}

60

49

Because the profession of shamanhood is "involuntary, following
the calls of their ancestors-shamans, they are not free to design they
drums as they wish. ... Sometimes new drums are framed and designed according
to the instructions of the spirits of mountains. Such drums are treated
as the most honored gifts, and shamans do not miss a chance to report
to their audiences that a drum was received from a mountain spirit".

"the creator of the universe, benevolent heavenly god Es
(the sky) prefers not to interfere in earthly life and problems. As an
embodiment of good forces, Es is opposed by the source of all "evil",
the goddess Khosadam {just as in Manda< theology, god Manda< d H.ayya
is opposed by the evil goddess Ruh.a}, who feeds on human souls and supervises
numerous hostile spirits that harm people".

10-11

"A human being has seven souls. The major one is called ulvei.
{cf. the /ULWa/ tribe in northern Nikarawa}

62

... people die simply because the "evil" goddess Khosadam catches
and devours their ulvei. Yet eventually, an individual ulvei
comes out from Khosadam’s body along with the excrement and "moves"
into another human host".

7-8

"The Ostiak credit Doh {[Kurdish] Dohuk = [Zaratustrian]
god Dahaka}, who is an object of numerous legends, with the creation
of "customary law," various "philosophical utterences,"
and moral code. ...

Once Doh performed a se’ance and had to ascent to the sky. Yet he jumped
up so abruptly that his ulvei dropped out from his body. Hostile
spirits ... seized his ulvei and delivered it to Khosadam. The goddess
immmediately tries to devour his ulvei but broke her tooth. After
this, she nailed the shaman’s ulvei to a tree to make sure that
the soul would never return to the host. {cf. rN~in-ma nailing
of harmful spirits ??} ... So Doh stood on his drum, which turned into
a cloud {"and a cloud received him out of their sight." (Acts
of the Apostles 1:9)}, and ascended into the sky.

... To ease their sorrow [to comfort them – cf. the Paraclete ‘Comforter’],
Doh took his shamanic cloak and threw it [down from the cloud] to his
granddaughter, saying, "Now she will be shamanizing for you"".

63

24-5

"people experience a shamanic call unexpectedly. ... In their dream
or just as they awaken {while in the process of awakening, one may hear
a voice calling one’s name (most commonly), or uttering some other call
to one – qur>an (‘call’)}, the chosen ones usually see a deceased shaman
who, silently like a ghost {is a ghost}, walks by or directly orders,
"Begin to shamanize!" Then all spirits which had been subjected
to the power of this deceased shaman begin to visit and constantly pressure
a candidate to accept the shamanic vocation.

An exterior manifestation of this spiritual pressure is a sudden desire
of an individual to sing and dance. ... The ones who accept the call are
usually defined as dadij, ... "blessed" ...

64

They are visionaries; they feel "ghosts" or talk to themselves
and ... frequently weep for no reason and sometimes laugh wildly or roll
on the ground. ... When they find their shamanic path, ... the chosen
people "master" their spirits, and eventually become sane again.
{Christian "Holy Rollers" never master their spirits, and so
continue to roll on the ground insanely?}

Upon "advice" from their spirits, would-be shamans ... make
them a drumstick, which places spiritual practitioners in the first category
of khynysenin or "ittle shamans." ... The chosen ones
usually stay in the rank of "little shamans" no more than a
year.

Then, upon receipt of a new drumstick, the headband {cf. miter ‘headband
(literally)’ of bishops}, and the breastplate {of the high priest, in
the To^rah}, "little ones" {cf. "little ones"
who dance, in the Gospel} become senin (genuine) shamans.

Those who reach the highest rank of great shamans (kasenin) usually
have two drums ..., and they are usually quite old"."

25-26

"During their se’ances, shamans mostly act as soothsayers. {"readers
& advisers"} Shamans are expected to explain why people experience
personal and communal misfortunes such as lack of children, hunting failures,
and losses of various objects. The most crucial job is ... to locate good
hunting grounds and wild game."

27-31

"In the beginning [of a shamanic se’ance], shamans usually "stick
" {insert, as if drumming from the opposite surface of the singled-headed
drum, as with Gesar ?} their faces into a drum and sing, summoning their
spirit helpers. Shamans lovingly call these spirits by their names and
warmly welcome them. Those spirits who arrive "accommodate"
themselves inside drums on pendants and on thongs.

Then shamans usually start their dance : jumping on both feet, they whirl
around a fire, simultaneously revolving on their axes [bodily axis, whirling
{like unto dervishes}]. In the meantime, the spirits raise shamans up
under clouds. In their songs, shamans share with their audiences what
they see from high above."

65

"Anuchin ... observed how ... a shamaness ... jumped on burning
coals where she danced for about half a minute. ... he did not see any
burns.

... a seventy-year-old shaman dressed in a fifty-pound costume is capable
of dancing for two hours."

33

"With each acquired sacred item, the shaman’s power and status increase.
Gradually, shamans acquire the drumstick, the kerchief, the breast plate,
the footwear, mittens, the drum with the new drumstick, the staff, the
cloak along with a head "crown," and, finally, a second drum.
Each item is manufactured for shamans according to instructions received
from their spirits."

50

"All drawings on the exterior side of a drum are called the universe"."

51

"The interior side of the drum is called a "perch". It
represents a combination of iron rods and

66

thongs with attached figurines ... The spirits who are summoned by a
shaman during a se`ance usually come and "sit" at this "perch.""
{cf. [S^into] tori-i (‘bird-perch’) ?}

78

"The cloak and the "crown" are the other two highest accessories
of the shamanic profession. Shamans usually acquire these items only after
accumulating many years of experience. Ostiak shamanic cloaks are tailored
in the form a bird ... because the Ostiak believe that shamans had learned
about the secrets of their profession from the eagle. ...

In addition, drawings ... depicted on ... a cloak may represent portray
... celestial bodies, the earth, and the seas. Like the drawings ... on
the drum, these drawings ... similarly represent the "sketch map
that shamans use to navigate themselves during their journeys" ...

A shaman’s "crown" is an iron hoop with two iron arcs that
cross each other. One arc is bent in the form of a knife, which serves
"to cut" clouds when a shaman "rises" to the sky To
the top, where two arcs intersect, iron antlers are attached, because
... shamans have deer spirits at their disposal, which helps them to move
fast."

pp. 80-83 M. N. Khangalov : "New Materials on Buryat
Shamanism".

80

"Their ninety-nine chief deities, who resided in the sky, are called
tengeri (tengri) ..., which means "daylight sky."
The tengeri are divided into two large groups ... : fifty-five
Western ("white") ... and forty-four Eastern ("black")
... The "white" ones live on the Western side of the sky, while
the "black" ones reside in the Eastern part. {Is this because
white ghosts tend to appear at night, whereas black ones tend to appear
during daylight?}

"Erlen-khan, the chief of the Eastern ("black") tengeri
... has numerous "administrators" and "scribes" who
are subordinated to him who serve in special "offices," {Daoist-style
divine bureaucracy} where people’s destinies are decided.

Erlen-khan also controls underworld-dungeons, where the souls of people
who are doomed to die live in suffering. ... Yet people believe that an
experienced shaman can release a human soul from a dungeon and return
it to its owner. In that case an ailing person recovers ..."

81

" "Black" shamans ... after their deaths ... can defend
earthly people by appealing to "black" zaiany {cf. <arabi^
/ZAIN/ ‘beauty’, /ZiYAN ‘ornament’ (such as adorn a shaman’s costume)}
on their behalf. ... almost every locality, clan, and community (ulus)
{cf. <arabi^ />aWayL/ ‘people’} has its special zaiany in
the other world."

"From aspen wood they made a coffin and put [the cadaver of] the
shamaness there with her face down." {This is the usual posture for
female corpses during Na-xi cremations.}

82

135

"The Buryat from the Balagan area believe that the soul can jump
out of the body of a person who is suddenly scared. {cf. "shell-shock"}

136

... to retrieve the souls, they ... perform the khuralkha ritual
by luring the stray soul back with its favorite food. During this rite,
the person who lost a soul wears the clothing he had on when frightened.

137

... the shaman sprinkles tarasun to local "mountain elders."
After this, the shaman goes to the spot where the soul was lost ..., and
tries to time the ritual approximately to the time of day when the soul
was lost. The Buryat believe that the soul comes back to the same spot
at the same time and cries for its host.

... when a patient weeps and trembles it is a good sign. This means that
... the soul came back to the body, weeping and trembling with joy ..."

109-110

"Another rite, called ukhan-tarim {cf. TARIM river of the
UiGur}, ... shamans ... first put juniper and thyme grass (chebrets,
thymus serpillum) into a kettle with boiling water. Then they sprinkle
with tarasun and sour milk

83

to the patron of the rite, a zaiany named Tarim-Sagan-noion."

111

"To perform gal-tarim, shamans heat either an iron ploughshare
{cf. the ploughshare too hot be touched, which fell from the sky to the
Skuthai, according to Herodotos} ..."

LA-L = Lexicon Arabico-Latinum.
Beirut, 1975.

pp. 92-94 Pekarskii & Vasiliev : "Cloak and Drum
of a Yakut Shaman".

93

15-6

"A disk that depicts the sun is attached to the costume to lighten
[illumine] a shaman’s path in the "underworld kingdom" ... A
round badge symbolizes a saddle shamans used to descend to the underworld,
to the underworld and to ascend to the upper world during their se’ances.
A small circle depicts an ice-hole, which is a passage to the underworld,
to the "kingdom of hostile spirits." The small circle is paired
with the image of a fish, a shaman spirit that is assigned to guard the
passage to the underworld to keep the hostile spirits, who torture the
sick, from coming back to the earth."

6-7

"the shamanic "cloak" has numerous iron plates shaped
as bones and joints.

12

These plates depict the bones of shamans".

94

21

"The Yakut believe that the shamanic "cloak" is a living
being."

pp. 97-98 Grigorii Potanin : "Shamanic Drums and the Sign of the Cross
on Them".

97

"Inside, a drum has a handle in the shape of two crossbars ...

(1) Altaian and Sayan drums ... In these drums, the horizontal bar is
not connected with the handle (the vertical bar) but goes under it. ...

(2) Tungus (Evenki) drums have two crossbars, which are not directly
connected to the frame of the drum, but attached to it with leather thongs.

(3) Samoyed (Nentsy) drums have a horizontal bar that reaches only the
middle of the drum, where it is connected to the vertical bar."

"on Siberian drums, handles have names.

The Mongols call them bar, which means tiger;

the Altaians label them mars, which means snow leopard; ... and

the Buryat call handles bar-takhi or baran-geresun (the
bear)."

pp. 98-102 V. L. Priklonskii : "On Yakut Shamanism".

100

"Initiation of novices into the shamanic vocation is conducted in
public. Usually an established shaman, who acts as the master of initiation
ceremonies, accompanies a novice to a high mountain ..., where the initiated
person is dressed in the shaman caftan (kuma) and receives a purple
willow branch decorated with horse’s hair. The "master" places
nine youths on the right side of the novice and nine maidens on the left
side, and after this situates himself behind the novice and utterrs a
shamanic oath, which the would-be shaman has to repeat. The novice swears
to "become a protector for all unfortunate ones, a father for the
poor, a mother for orphans," and to honor spirits and serve them."

"Shamans are usually very poor people. Some of them never acquire
households".

"in addition to shamans, the Yakut also have shamanesses (udagan),
who actually exceed their male colleagues in numbers.

... according to natives, shamanesses are more successful in treatment
of mental illnesses. In this case, people favor them over their male colleagues".

pp. 105-108 V. L. Seroshevskii (Sieroszewski) : "The
Yakut".

105

625

"the spirit of a deceased shaman (ama:ga:t) moves into a
member of his or

106

her own clan and forces that person to shamanize. ...

In addition to ama:ga:t, each shaman has a second major guardian
spirit, which manifests itself in the form of an animal or bird (ie-kyla).
Shamans carefully guard the identity of their ie-kyla from outsiders.
Ie-kyla manifest themselves only once a year in spring, when the
... ie-kyla scour over all the earth. {"From going to and
fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." (>YB
2:2)} ... "Dog" shamans {Kaleb (‘Hound’) of S^PT.YM 1:10},
whose ie-kyla is represented by a dog, are usually considered the
weakest and most cowardly shamans. ...

Upon their deaths, great shamans sometimes take their ama:ga:t
with them to the heavenly world and turn them into celestial spirits."

628

"great shamans receive their ama:ga:t from Ulu-toen, the
celestial deity that created all shamans" [viz., all shamanhood].

639-640

"Invited to see a patient, the shaman usually rests until night
"when the sorcery becomes possible." ... it gets dark in the
dwelling. Then the people close the door of the yurt. {" But thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy
door, pray" (Matthaios 6:6)} After this, nobody is allowed
to go in or out. The shaman situates himself on a white horse skin right
in the middle of the yurt ..., and puts on a shaman costume. ... after
which the shaman starts

107

to yawn ..., shivering and murmuring".

641-2

"When the yurt is completely dark, he begins ... by imitations of
voices of various birds, such as the hawk, the seagull, the raven, the
eagle, the loon, and the woodcock. ... Then the shaman supplements with
his ... invocations of spirits. He asks his ama:ga:t ... to assist
him".

643

"When the ama:ga:t finally descends upon the shaman, he stands
up, lights the fire, and begins his dance, accompanied by singing and
drum beating. ... He whirls around a dwelling, beating his drum and shaking
his ringing costume."

632-4

"the Yakut shamanic costume consists of a robe ... The front part
of this robe is so short that it does not even cover the knees, In the
back, on the contrary, the robe is so long that its edges hang to the
ground. ...

108

The plate shaped like a fish (balyk-temir) hangs from the back
on a long rope and ... is bait for petty spirits, who usually run after
it and try to catch it."

[the informant] "was already an old man and was ready to quit his
vocation. Yet constantly pressed by hostile spirits ..., who threatened
to strangle him {difficulties in breathing being a hazard to mystic practitioners},
he continued to shamanize into old age".

113

148-9

"... "a man without a head but with eyes in
his chest," {this is a Chinese deity, mentioned in the Classic
of Mountains and Seas} and "a man black ... with iron claws."
... the latter spirit is extremely powerful and ... it is "constructed"
by boiling and mixing {Chinese alchemy} in a stone kettle {cf. birth out
of Vamana’s kamandula (water-pot) – http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/vamana.htm
} the spirits of nine men. {aequivalent to Daoist (and Bon) 9-headed deities}

114

149

This "combined" spirit is so mighty and heavy-weighted
that no other spirits ... can overpower him. When this "mighty fat
spirit" walks, the earth trembles, and his legs are "sinking"
in the ground up to his knees". {Vamana "was in the appearance
of a hermit. Though he was of diminutive size, yet each of his steps were
enough to shake the earth." http://www.bharatadesam.com/spiritual/vamana_purana.php
}

150-1

"When a hostile spirit (aina) steals the "health"
of an individual, it usually leaves behind it a black or sandy red track.
Using this track, a shaman’s spirit helpers "sniff" the culprit
spirit. ... in the other world, patients’ "healths" usually
get into the hands of their deceased relatives, who carefully hide

115

them from the shamans and their spirit helpers. If shamans,
along with their spirit helpers, are able to take away "a health,"
they wrap it ... and tightly tie it with silver threads and hand it to
an eagle that carries the "health" in its claws. The eagle flies
to the yurt .... gets inside through a smoke hole, and delivers the health
to the spiritual practitioner, who usually comes into the dwelling earlier
on the wings of an owl. The shaman gives a cup of milk {element of the
communion-sacrament, as per 1stPetros 2:2 -- http://www.molokane.org/molokan/Dogma/1_Peter_2_2.htm
} to the patient and ties the "health" by a string to a birch
tree".

151

"Kugurtka`n, the "czar over all spirits," who is able
to walk in air resides on the west coast of an ocean, rides a white horse
and has a bridle with silver threads [reins?]. When the "czar"
walks on the earth, the ground shakes, lightning strikes, and a whirlwind
"howls." He wears a white silk cap and white morocco boots and
gloves. His clothing is made of pure silver. {identical with Bon silver-armored
god?} ...

Hostile spirits ... "stand close to each other ..., their beards
are very long, and their claws are bent like the claws [talons] of a predator
bird. They are incredibly tall and have huge eyes. Their teeth are black
like tar. ... some of them are hairy ... Some have tails ...""

pp. 115-120 V. F. Troshchanskii : "The Evolution of the Black Faith among
the Yakut".